Solid waste and solid toxic materials are generated from many sources, to include by production and evacuation from animals as well as industrial processes. Farm laborers, zoo workers and pet owners are not unusually tasked with cleaning up waste matter or from the ground or otherwise deposited by animals, such as canines, cats, domesticated animals and/or animals maintained in confined areas.
Yet touching feces is almost universally repulsive and considered to be a degrading and undesirable act. The prior art includes efforts to maintain separation between a collector of animal waste or toxic matter and the material to be collected.
To solve the above stated problem it has been proposed to collect the pet's excrement by means of small shovels, placing the depositions into bags that when closed are discarded into any street or public trash collector.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,059,332 discloses a domestic pet's excrement collector. The invented collector includes two similar rectangular structures facing each other and joined in between by a posterior concave-convex wall forming a pincer-shaped hinge for the collector. Over the convex face of the wall is fixed a cylindrical tube closed at one end, having inside of the tube a roll of continuous bags, while the other end of the tube is closed by a lid. The plastic bag is placed covering the collecting pincers. The bottom of the bag is contained within the pincers towards the cylindrical tube. This complex construction does not relate to the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,523,972 discloses a portable waste remover with integrated bag. The invented waste remover includes a handle, a housing portion for holding and dispensing bags, and a grabbing assembly actuated by a spring and pulley assembly contained in the handle. The grabbing assembly is further coupled to a first and second frame member wherein the frame members are capable of pivotally attachment to the housing portion. The first and second pivot arms may have removable clamps that either secure the frame members for grabbing waste or detach from the frame members making them collapsible. The housing portion may be configured in the shape of a tube with a roller and having a slotted groove disposed where disposable bags may be fitted around the roller and dispensed through the slotted groove. In another configuration, the grabber assembly engaging the handle is comprised of a button, spring, spring arm with shoulder, and toothed elongated arm engaging the frame members.
There is a long-felt need to provide a device that optimally enables a human to collect animal solid waste, or other solid toxic material, without requiring the device operator to handle or touch the solid material.
None of the mentioned prior-art patents offers a construction similar to this present invention, nor provide a solution having a low cost base structure or frame including a movable arm, to which is attached a disposable plastic bag within which the pet's depositions are collected, such as disclosed herein. Once the bag has been used, the bag may be withdrawn in a rapid and hygienic manner.